The Beer Nut: A little slice of hop heaven

It's a tale of two breweries - well, almost - when you talk about the Port Brewing Company.

Norman Miller

It's a tale of two breweries - well, almost - when you talk about the Port Brewing Company.

The San Marcos, Calif., brewery is known for making big, high-alcohol, in-your-face brews, from double India pale ales to wonderfully flavorful Russian imperial stouts.

But then, there is another side to the Port Brewing Company the spiritual side. Those beers, The Lost Abbey ales, are true-to-style, impressively accurate and just wonderful Belgian-style ales, including saisons, dubbels and quads.

There are several breweries focusing on big, American-style hoppy beers that will brew an occasional Belgian ale. Belgian beer brewers will also sometimes brew something out of the norm for them, such as a stout or an IPA.

But, the combination of the Port Brewing Company/Lost Abbey lines is unique in that both lines are fully developed. Heck, either Port or Lost Abbey would be an impressive stand-alone brewery.

All of the beers are brewed under the watchful eye of Tomme Arthur, the director of brewing operations.

"Our word is to keep creating the great beers and not to stop the innovations," he said.

Port Brewing came first.

In 1992, Vince and Gina Marsaglia started home brewing, then decided to install a small brewery in their pizza parlor. The Pizza Port in Solana Beach was born.

In March 2006, the Marsaglias bought the old Stone Brewing Company facility in San Marcos and started selling beer in stores.

Arthur came on board in 1997 and has not looked back.

"Some of the Port beers grew out of seasonal and specialty releases at the restaurant," he said. "A lot of the beers are more Americanized."

The beers are excellent. The Hop 15 was brewed to celebrate Pizza Port's 15th anniversary last year. It is brewed with 15 hop varieties, and the bitter hop flavor is definitely something to grab your attention.

Port also brews the Wipe Out IPA and the Shark Attack, a hoppier-than-normal red ale.

Two of the best Port beers are the winter seasonal Santa's Little Helper, an intensely flavored imperial stout, and Old Viscosity, a strong ale. Be warned about Old Viscosity: I had it with turkey, and the beer's flavors were so strong the turkey taste was obliterated; drink it by itself or with something hefty enough to match the beer's flavors.

You can tell, though, that The Lost Abbey line is Arthur's true passion.

"Lost Abbey is definitely my baby," he said. "All of the recipes on the Abbey side have come out of my head."

To go along with the beers, Arthur, who has an English degree, worked to create a mystique, a story behind the beers. Many of the stories, either on the Web site or on the bottles, are based in religion.

Here's a sample from the Web site: "The Lost Abbey was imagined as part of a crusade in the ongoing story of Good vs. Evil beer. Everywhere we turn these days, there is a battle being waged between those who make good beer and those who make evil beers (bad beers)."

There is also a list of Ten Commandments to be followed on the site, including "Fresh beer is great, aged beer is better," and "Passion isn't something you can buy at the corner store."

"I wanted to have a story-rich environment," Arthur said.

Even if The Lost Abbey bottles - which are all 750-milliliter caged and corked bottles - were not fun and interesting to read, drinking the beer is plenty of enjoyment.

The Lost Abbey beers are some of the best American takes on Belgian-styles.

Judgment Day is a Belgian quad brewed with raisins. At 10.5 percent alcohol by volume, this is a beer that can be put in your cellar and pulled out for a special occasion.

Other year-round offerings include Red Barn Ale, Avant Garde, Lost and Found, and Devotion.

Seasonal offerings include The Ten Commandments and Carnevale, which I think is the best American-brewed saison, or farmhouse style, on shelves today.

Some of the rarer offerings that don't make it to the East Coast, such as Older Viscosity and Red Poppy, have developed a cult following on beer Web sites, with people going out of their way to trade for these hard-to-find beers.

"That's something we absolutely feel good about," said Arthur. "We have things people really want, and the beers follow our personality."